Crossing to the window, Heather checked her reflection in the darkened glass. She drew up her lips and studied her teeth, then ran a hand through her hair, straightened her jacket, and gave herself an appreciative nod.

Looking good.

Good enough, anyway.

There was a buzzing from the table behind her, and her eyes were drawn to Logan’s coat. She looked over to the door, saw no sign of him coming back, so fished his phone from his pocket and regarded the picture on-screen with a sort of fascinated curiosity.

A little flashing camera icon told her it was a video call. She gave her hair another quick run-through with a hand, turned the phone to get her from her best angle, then tapped the button to reply.

At first glance, the person who appeared on-screen may have been Alice Cooper. The makeup was spot-on, anyway, although Heather didn’t recall Alice Cooper ever looking quite so shocked as the woman calling did.

“Hi!” DCI Filson said. “Can I help you?”

“Um… Hello,” the other woman replied in a hesitant Irish accent. “Is… Sorry, is this Jack’s phone?”

“It is,” Heather confirmed. “Who’s calling?”

“It’s… Um. Shona. Maguire. Shona Maguire. I’m… a friend.”

Heather frowned. “He’s never mentioned you,” she said. “And… sorry, do you know you’ve got something going on with your makeup? Is it meant to look like that?”

On-screen, Shona’s gaze flitted up to the top left corner of the picture as she checked the overlaid image of herself. She licked a thumb and rubbed furiously at the blurry dark stains under her eyes.

“No. That’s not… It was for a movie.”

Heather blinked in surprise. “You’re an actress?”

“What? No. I’m a pathologist.”

“Oh! Right. Gotcha. One of those gothy morbid ones.”

“No. Not… I wouldn’t say morbid, exactly, I just…” Shona stopped talking, took a breath, and tried again. “Is Jack there?”

Heather looked back over her shoulder. “He’s actually just gone to the bathroom. We were just having a drink and a bite to eat, then heading off. I can get him to call you back, if you like? Tomorrow would probably be best, though.” She smirked. “You know what they say, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

“What?” Shona looked down. Her head shook, but only once. “Um… right. Yeah. Sure. Whatever. Just… if you could tell him I called?”

“I’ll be sure to pass the message on,” Heather replied. She winked, her smile widening. “Whenever we get a minute.”

She gave a little wave, then ended the call with a swipe of her thumb. She hummed quietly to herself as she returned the phone to the pocket she’d taken it from.

A moment later, the door opened and Logan returned, still tucking his shirt back in. “Right, I’d best be getting off,” he announced.